A Princess is a Friend Forever
by Seraphdragon7
Summary: The six Disney princesses meet and become friends while planning their weddings to their princes. However an evil master of darkness plans on capturing the princesses and trapping them forever in his world of darkness.
1. Chapter 1

Princess Snow White was filled with joy as she rode behind her darling Prince Ferdinand on his white horse Splendor as he carried her away to his castle in the mountains where they would be married and live happily ever after. Leaving behind her first closest friends the seven dwarves and their cozy homey cottage was hard, but now she was with the man of her dreams. Snow White first met Prince Ferdinand at the well in the courtyard of her father's castle in Bavaria, the castle where her wicked stepmother Queen Grimhilde took over and began to hate Snow White and plot to destroy her.

At the well, Snow White was drawing water to scrub the castle's stone floor with, for her evil stepmother the wicked queen had put her to work as a scullery maid. Prince Ferdinand had been out hunting in the forest and had gotten lost. He heard the sound of sweet singing, and found a forest glade which led to the castle courtyard wall and the well where Snow White sang as she worked. Ferdinand jumped over the wall. The fair maiden was singing about her true love, which happened to be Prince Ferdinand. He is her "One Song."

Prince Ferdinand proved that he is Princess Snow White's true love when he resurrected her from the sleeping death she was under after being tricked into taking a bite out of a poisonous apple the wicked queen gave her while in disguise as an old peddler woman. The seven dwarves, those dear little childlike men that took Snow White into their home and loved her with honest friendship and good hospitality, were heartbroken when they thought Snow White was dead. She was so beautiful they could not bury here but laid her in a coffin with a glass lid and placed the coffin in a meadow and placed flowers around it. In winter they cleared the snow off the coffin's lid, in spring they cleared the falling blossoms from the apple trees and placed them to the sides of the coffin, in autumn they cleared away the fallen leaves and apples. Prince Ferdinand searched everywhere after first meeting Snow White, he knew she was his true love, the girl meant for him. He was not afraid of the wicked queen and her evil sorceries. The seven dwarves put and end to the wicked witch of a queen. While disguised as an old hag to sell her poisonous apples the dwarves chased her, riding on the deer of the forest who aided them in their time of need. They chased the fiend to a cliff, where she attempted to roll a large boulder down upon them and crush the brave dwarves determined to avenge the innocent maiden she had tried to murder. There was a great thunder storm that night, the wind blew cold and fierce and thunder and lightning crashed as the stick the evil witch was using to push the boulder broke in half and the large rock rolled backward, over onto her and crushed her, knocking her off the cliff and doing her in as the lightning struck and thunder boomed, signaling the hand of God and fate had given natural justice, the evil doers fall into their own pit.

Ferdinand found Snow White in the meadow at spring time, when lovely pink and white apple blossoms fell from the trees over the coffin and onto the clear glass lid. The wild flowers in the meadow were in bloom, the dwarves had put a garland of flowers on Snow White's head. She wore the best dress that she had worn when the queen's royal huntsman took her out of the castle for a walk in the woods, which he really meant to kill her, but could not bring himself to do it because of the young princess' goodness and innocence. The huntsman killed a wild pig and took its heart back to the evil queen pretending it was Snow White's heart. After deceiving his cruel mistress the hunter fled from the castle and the kingdom. Snow White's dress was getting worn out from her fearful flight through the forest at night, and then her work cleaning up the seven dwarves' cottage; it had some tears at the hem of the skirt and needed washing. Her dress had a dark blue bodice with a full yellow skirt, short puffed slashed light blue sleeves and red lining inside the slashes, and a stiff white collar coming up from the curved square neckline framing her shoulder-length bobbed black hair, which usually had a red ribbon tied in a bow on top of her head.

Prince Ferdinand was delighted to find her. He talked with the dwarves, and was overcome with sorrow to find out that she was dead. Looking at her beautiful pale face with her rosy cheeks and ruby red lips he could not believe that she was dead. He begged the dwarves that they would give Snow White's body to him; he offered them great riches for her body so he could take her to his castle and keep her with him. First, he opened the coffin, and could not resist kissing Snow White on her lovely rosy red lips. Then her lips parted and she began to breathe again, her sweet dark brown eyes opened and she breathed more deeply. She was alive! Ferdinand took her soft pale hand and helped her rise from the coffin. Then he hugged her and kissed her again.

"Snow White my love, you're alive! I'm so happy to have found you!" Snow White shook flower petals from her dress. "Oh my, you won't believe what I've seen. I was dead, and I went to heaven and saw the Lord Jesus, and he told me many things, and I met my mother, but the Lord told me I would have to return to Disney-Earth, and that my friends would be happy to see me alive. Oh my sweet prince I am glad to see you. Doc, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Dopey, Grumpy, put away those tears and gloomy faces, I'm alive now.

"Hurray!" The dwarves all shouted. The forest animals came out to see what the commotion was about. A doe and her fawn came cautiously approached Snow White, and some rabbits hopped up to Dopey. A dove flew down and perched on Prince Ferdinand's hat. A meadow lark flew to Snow White and perched on her outstretched hand. Snow White began to sing. The squirrels in the trees climbed down to the low hanging branches and began chattering with the birds who were singing with her. A turtle and frog in the grass began to hum and ribbit in tune. A skunk chased the rabbits and then started dancing and singing with the other animals. Snow White danced and sang with Prince Ferdinand in the meadow and the dwarves danced along with her, the cute forest animals joined in the celebration, everyone was happy and delighted that their sweet, gentle, caring princess was alive again.

Snow White looked around as Splendor headed up a mountain path that led out of the meadows and forest and up some steep mountains to Prince Ferdinand's kingdom. There was a beautiful big mirror-like lake that reflected the mountains and blue sky all around them in its still waters. Some of the mountains had pristine white snow on their peaks.

Ferdinand urged his horse Splendor up a narrow steep trail that led up a rocky mountainside. The trail started off close to the ground, it gradually got higher and steeper with natural steps made from the mossy rocks and earth. Pine trees clung to the mountainside tenaciously. Snow White began to get scared as the horse climbed higher she held on to her grip on Ferdinand's waist and prayed she would not fall off she had already died once and did not want to die again, especially not from falling off her lover's horse on a steep mountain path just when she had come so close to her dream wedding and dream life.

The path wound round the mountain and then through some cave tunnels. Ferdinand slowed his horse when they came to the first cave tunnel. "Be very quiet in these caves. In my country there is a rumor that an earth dragon known as King Diamond lives in the caverns inside these mountains, but he sleeps in an enchanted slumber in a cavern deep inside the mountains. It is said he will wake up someday and immediately destroy the one who wakes him up; he will terrorize the land in great fury at having his rest disturbed. So you see we must be very quiet when we enter the caves, and only talk in low whispers, the problem is it echoes loudly through the rocky walls. So it would be best if we don't talk at all while in the tunnels." Ferdinand told her quietly and slowly while outside the cave tunnels.

"Ferdinand, this is the same mountain range where my dwarf friends have their diamond mines. Their mines are not far from here. This 'King Diamond' dragon of yours must be a myth. The dwarves say they have mined in these caves for centuries, the mines are in their family history and they know nothing about dragons living in here." Snow White protested.

"Maybe someone made up a story about dragons to keep people from taking the diamonds. I don't know, but on the safe side, just in case there really is a dangerous dragon, let's be quiet while in the caves, all right?" Ferdinand suggested.

"I agree, that would be wise. Let's proceed with caution." Snow White told her sweetheart.

"Before we go, I must light a torch, it will be hard for us to see in the cave." Ferdinand took a torch out of his pack and found his tinderbox and lit the torch. Holding the torch up and out, away from him and his horse's head, he rode on, the fire from the torch lighting the way. Splendor's iron horseshoe struck a hard stone on the floor, making a loud ringing sound. Ferdinand winced, but remembered not to drop the torched. Snow White gasped. For a moment they stood still and listened to the echo. Then Ferdinand urged his horse onward. "Go boy, get us out of here." Splendor hurried on. They heard water dripping and saw an underground pool with water dripping in from above sculpting the caverns and tunnels with its flow. There was a stream that flowed underground, and it blocked their path, low hanging stalactites drooped down from the ceiling, also blocking the path along with the icy stream that cut through the stone and dirt. They decided to follow the stream. Following the stream they heard the loud roar of rushing water. The stream led them to a plateau where the stream poured down as a waterfall. Now how would they get down from here? The plateau was quite big with room for the stallion and his two riders to stand.

"How will we get down from here?" Ferdinand wondered?

"I see something that looks like a path over there to the right." Snow White said. There was a statue carved out of the mountain's own stone to the right side of the plateau's edge, Ferdinand went closer to it and saw that it looked like an angel with his arms and wings spread to form a rail or wall to protect travelers who come too close from falling off the edge. Beyond that the "path" led to the mountainside behind the waterfall, and there was a gradually path cut into the rocks, trees and bushes for horses, donkeys, wagons and people. They took this path and then found them selves in a valley between and below the mountains.

Through the valley the had to cross a raging river on a not-so-stable wooden bridge, and they went through more mountain cave tunnels and then through a busy city until they reached Ferdinand's castle, where his father King George and his younger brother Prince Charles lived.

The guards at the castle gates were surprised to see Prince Ferdinand; after all he had been gone a long time.

"Guards, it's me, Prince Ferdinand. I am home at last. I said I would not come back until I have found my true love, as so I have kept my word, here she is, my beloved Princess Snow White! What's the matter with you? Don't you recognize me? Let me in immediately, I must show my bride to my father."


	2. Chapter 2

Cinderella ran down the staircase of her house as fast as she could after her mice friends found the key to the attic room her cruel stepmother locked her in. She had to stop the grand duke from leaving without giving her a chance to try on the glass slipper, which was her slipper when she danced with Prince Charles at the royal ball last night.

"Do you have any other daughters?" The grand duke asked Cinderella's stepmother, Lady Tremaine, after the two ugly and mean stepsisters Drizella and Anastasia failed to squeeze their big ugly stinky feet into the little delicate glass slipper.

"No, your grace." Lady Tremaine replied, as Cinderella reached the room from upstairs. Lady Tremaine tried to hide Cinderella by standing in front of her.

"Wait, please don't go!" Cinderella called to the duke.

The grand duke was delighted to see Cinderella; she looked like the girl the prince had danced with at the ball.

"A figure of your imagination." Lady Tremaine said.

"I want to try on the slipper." Cinderella said. Cinderella sat down in a chair in the front living room and the grand duke signaled for the footman to bring the glass slipper on its pillow to her. While the footman hurried over, the wicked stepmother stuck out her ebony cane and tripped the footman, causing him to fall and drop the glass slipper. It fell on the hard marble tiles of the mansion's floor, and broke.

"Oh no!" cried Cinderella and the grand duke. The footman glared angrily at the treacherous stepmother.

"So sorry, your grace, an unfortunate accident." Lady Tremaine said smugly smiling an evil smile.

"No, no, now what shall I do? The grand duke moaned in despair. "All is lost! The king, what will he say? What will he do?"

"Don't worry, I have the other slipper." Said Cinderella. She took the matching glass slipper out of her apron pocket and handed it to the duke. The duke was so overwhelmed with relief he kissed the precious glass slipper. He tried it on Cinderella's right foot, and it was a perfect fit!

"At last, we have found the prince's true bride!" The grand duke said.

"That's impossible!" Lady Tremaine protested.

"But I wanted to marry the prince! It's not fair!" Anastasia and Drizella began to whine and cry when they saw that their chances of marrying Prince Charles were over.

"Come with me, my dear, I believe Prince Charles is very eager to see you." Said the grand duke.

"Oh how I have longed for this day!" Cinderella exclaimed. "Goodbye stepmother, Anastasia, Drizella, and know that I forgive you for the way you have treated me, because forgiveness sets the heart free to love."

Cinderella followed the grand duke and footmen to the carriage waiting outside. The footman helped her into the carriage. Cinderella said goodbye to her old life of drudgery forever as she rode off to the castle to meet her handsome, kind, charming gentleman prince who would marry her and make her a princess.

King George of Alberta had finished his breakfast and was relaxing with a cup of coffee on the castle veranda overlooking the lovely garden while reading the Bible. The stout, aging king wore a white suit resembling a military uniform, with golf braid and buttons down the front. On his balding head was a gold crown. He had a thick white mutton chop mustache. When King George finished his cup of coffee and set the cup down, a guard came into the room and bowed before delivering his message.

"Good morning Sir Edmund. Do you have something important to say?" The king asked the guard.

"Good morning your majesty. Yes I do have good news for you. Grand Duke William has found the girl Prince Charles is in love with, the young lady whose foot fits the glass slipper. He has arrived at the castle with her. Unfortunately your majesty, she is not what we expected. It appears, sire, the girl is a- a servant!"

"What! A servant girl marry my son?! We shall see about this!"

Just then, another guard rushed into the room. "Your majesty, your son, Prince Ferdinand, who was gone for a long time, has returned to the kingdom and the castle. He has not returned alone, sire, but brings with him his bride, a beautiful princess from our neighboring kingdom whom he rescued from certain death."

"Well, at least my eldest son knows to bring home a princess and not fall for servant girls." King George said. "But I swear the maiden at the ball looked just like a princess in that sparking pale blue silk dress with the long white gloves and glass slippers. Where would a mere servant find clothes like that? I suppose as a maid she could have stolen them from her mistress to have a night of fun at the ball. Where is Charles? I will meet with him and his servant girl first. I think that Ferdinand and his princess will want to rest and refresh themselves before they see me. "

Cinderella was awed by the size and grand design of the castle. She had seen it last night at the ball but then it had been dark and she had not been able to make out all the details she could see in the light of day. It was magnificent. She followed the grand duke through the castle, having trouble keeping up with him because she kept pausing to stare at all the wonderful beautiful décor of the castle. Grand Duke William took her to a parlor room with portraits of deceased members of the royal family and lots of chairs, love seats, and couches. Cinderella sat down in a powder blue chair and looked at a portrait on the wall across from her. Grand Duke William went to fetch Prince Charles.

The portrait was of a pretty, slim, middle-aged woman with dark auburn hair, fair skin and cornflower blue eyes. She wore a medium blue velvet dress trimmed with a collar of white lace around her shoulders with a sapphire and diamond brooch in the center at her bosom. Her auburn hair was swept up into a fancy twist on the top of her head and crowned with a sapphire and diamond tiara, she had on a matching necklace and earrings. Cinderella wondered who she was. The lady's portrait was placed in a noticeable spot of importance.

Prince Charles came rushing through the door. "It's you!" Cinderella stood up and hurried to meet him. They ran into each other's arms.

"Why are you dressed in old servant's clothes? I would clad my beautiful lady in fine dresses and jewels, not rags. Tell me who you are, I want to know everything about you." Prince Charles said.

"Well," Cinderella paused, not sure how to start. "I must be truthful; I have lived in my stepmother's house as her maid for several years."

"Did you say your stepmother? Why should she treat you as maid? Shouldn't you be part of the family? What about your father? I have heard of jealousy among stepfamilies and stepparents preferring their own natural children to their stepchildren, but it is outrageous to make a stepchild into a servant."

"You see my mother died when I was a baby, and when I was a young child my father had a lot of pressure on him to remarry so that I would have a mother. He thought that I needed a mother himself, so he started to court several different ladies and search for a lady who would make a good wife and mother for our estate in the country.

"He had a friend who employed a governess to educate and watch over his three young sons. Her name was Lady Tremaine, she was a widow and had two young daughters of her own, Anastasia and Drizella, who are my age. While visiting his friend my father met Lady Tremaine, and he decided to hire her to be my governess. Later on, he fell in love with her and decided to marry her.

"Unfortunately, things went downhill after that. My father soon became ill, and my stepmother convinced him to change his will while he was feverish. He left the house and lands to Lady Tremaine, and most of the money too. I lost my inheritance because my stepmother tricked my father into changing his will as he was dying. All I had left were some possessions of my mother's in an old attic room.

"So I stayed in the house as a maid, a servant to my stepmother and step sisters. I lived in the little attic room and the mice and birds were my only friends. Wait, there was Bruno the dog, he's such a sweet, good old hound, and there's the horse who is a good and faithful friend.

"When my family received the invitation for the royal ball, Anastasia and Drizella were very excited, but I was the one who was most excited of all, although I did my best not to show it. It meant one magical evening with no more dirty dishes, no more filthy fireplace filled with ashes and soot, no more preparing tomorrows meals or feeding the cat, dog, horse and all the barn animals, no more sweeping and mopping the floors, no more closing curtains and blowing out lights and being alone in the dark wishing the endless work and chores would stop and that I could be someone else and be somewhere else and be free from the scolding harsh nagging voice of my cruel witch of a stepmother and my bratty selfish mean stepsisters telling my what to do and never being satisfied with all the hard work I do to please them. Anyone else would appreciate my work, I am the only servant, it is my house, I clean it for them, and they have no right to be there."

"So for one magical evening I could be free, I could be a princess and have my dreams come true, find someone to love and respect me, and it happened, all thanks to my fairy godmother."

"Your fairy godmother? They exist?" The prince was baffled.

"Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but there are fairies out there, and fairy godmothers, like guardian angels, that help people when they are in trouble. In my case, my stepmother said I could go to the ball if I got all my chores done, which I barely managed to do since she piled on more work helping her and my vain fussy stepsisters get ready for the ball. When I reached my little attic room exhausted from the days labors my mouse friends had a surprise for me. These had fixed up and old pink linen party dress that was my mother's it had been in a trunk in the attic for years, and now the mice and birds had fixed it up like a new dress. I put it on and put on the beads they found and a ribbon in my hair and ran downstairs to catch up with my stepsisters and stepmother. "

However it seemed the mice had borrowed some cast off things of my mean stepsisters, who now claimed they were stolen, my stepmother pointed out the old sash and beads and ribbons that Anastasia and Drizella had said they didn't want anymore earlier that day. So they ripped up my dress, tearing off the beads and sash and ribbons so that my dress was hopeless mess of rags. I couldn't go to the ball like that.

"I ran into the garden, overwhelmed with sorrow and despair, my heart was broken. How could they do this to me? I felt hopeless. All I wanted was one evening of freedom away from all my shores. I wanted one night where I felt like a grand lady instead of my stepmother's slave, an evening of happiness and fun, of splendor and beauty and romance. I cried and cried, it was hopeless, nothing would ever be right, I was doomed to misery as a drudge forever under my wicked stepmother's rule of tyranny in this big old house where once I had been happy when my father was alive.

"The fragrance of the roses in the bushes around me grew very strong and sweet and I saw and felt bubbles and some sparkling starry substance, was it stardust or fairy dust? It fell down around me like a glowing shower and I heard a voice say "Nothing is hopeless, child. Here I am your fairy godmother."

"I looked up and saw a short plump old woman in a sky blue cloak with the hood up over her white hair and sky blue robes matching the cloak. I had no idea who she could be; it looked as if she had just stepped out of heaven.

"'Who are you?' I asked her. 'Why, I am your fairy godmother child, like I said. I'm here to make your dreams come true. Now wipe those tears away dear. Let's see, I heard some mention about a ball.' she said to me. So I told her how much I wanted to go to the royal ball. My fairy godmother was quite amazing; she pulled her wand out of thin air. I know it looks just like a thin stick of peeled white wood, but it is a magic wand full of power and with it she changed a pumpkin into a fine carriage, the mice into horses, and the real horse into the coachman, and Bruno the dog into a footman. As for me, she changed my rags into a splendid ball gown, pale ice blue and white silk and satin with tiny crystal beads to dazzle like stars on the skirt and bodice of my gown. A blue satin headband with mother of pearl ends over my ears, long white satin gloves and shining glass slippers. I went to the ball and met you, my sweet prince, you remember the rest. For once I felt beautiful and admired; everyone thought I was a princess. You know the rest." Cinderella smiled at Prince Charles as she put her arm around him.

King George was heard pounding down the hall with heavy footsteps. He opened the door to the parlor, a bit annoyed.

"What's going on here? I demand to know EVERYTHING about this girl my son is so in love with that he wants to marry her.

Cinderella sighed. She would have to tell her story again. Perhaps not just to the king, but to everyone she meets at the castle, everyone would want to know who she is, how she came to be at the ball, what her feelings are for the prince and what her plans were for the future. She knew this for sure. She loved Prince Charles with all her heart and soul and would let nothing, not even the king himself, or her evil stepmother, separate her from her beloved prince she would do anything to prove that she was worthy of being the prince's bride.


	3. Chapter 3

A Princess is a Friend Forever

Chapter Three: Sleeping Beauty Awakes

That same morning, in the kingdom of Valonia, Princess Aurora, formerly the peasant maiden known as Briar Rose who used to live in a cottage in the forest, was now sleeping in her elegant bed in her tower bedroom in her father, King Stefan's castle. She dreamt of the night before, when she had danced with her dream prince, Prince Philip, at the ball celebrating his defeat of the evil destructive fairy Malificent, who had hated Aurora from the moment she was born and put a curse on the infant princess that she would prick her finger on a spinning wheel on her sixteenth birthday and die. The three good fairies Flora, Fauna and Merry Weather were able to soften the curse, Princess Aurora would not die, but fall into a deep sleep. Prince Philip fought with Malificent when she turned herself into a great dragon to prevent him from entering Aurora's castle and waking up Aurora. The three good fairies armed him with a magical sword and shield and he was able to slay the evil dragon fairy. Then Philip made his way to the tower room where Aurora slept in an enchanted slumber and kissed her on her rosy red lips. The princess opened her pretty blue eyes and was delighted to find her true love gazing upon her. The rest of the castle came awake and their was a celebration, the ball celebrating her sixteenth birthday and engagement to Prince Philip went on as scheduled and Princess Aurora found herself enjoying the royal castle life and falling more and more in love with Philip.

Now as she woke up the morning after, she yawned, feeling sleepy. She had stayed up late at the ball. The door to her bedroom opened and her three fairy 'aunts' burst in.

"Oh my, it's nearly 9:00 and you're still in bed! Well I'm sure the king and queen will understand if you sleep late this morning it was a long ball last night." Flora said.

"You'll be late for breakfast if you don't hurry!" Said Meriwether. "Come on child, get up, get up, the king and queen are waiting for you so break fast can start in the royal dining room."

Aurora sat up, rubbing her eyes. Flora took her hand and pulled her off the bed. The three fairy women led her to the closet where all her dresses were stored. The castle tailor had several dresses in Aurora's size prepared for her with the help of her fairy aunts' magic. Aurora opened her closet door and looked through all the pretty outfits. She chose a lavender silk dress with three-quarter open sleeves a scooped neckline with a v-shaped indent, and a rose and lily symbol embroidered on either sides of the indent. There were pearls over the shoulder seems and a magnificent belt of gold four-petal flower shapes with pearls, and rose quartz beads belted around her slim, small waist. She had embroidered gold brocade slippers to go with her dress.

Aurora brushed her hair and put on a gold circlet set with an amethyst. Now that she was all dressed up she went down the stairs and into the castle dining room with Flora, Fauna, and Meriwether following her.

In the dining room she met Prince Philip, wearing a blue tunic with leg of mutton sleeves, turquoise tights and a red cape.

"Good morning my love." he said. He kissed her and led her to her seat at the table. After she sat down she saw that her father King Stefan, who she really did not know, was in a deep conversation with Philip's father King Hugo. Her mother Queen Aurelia sat next to her husband the king and held a cup of breakfast tea in her hands, looking into the liquid in the cup and thinking, she was lost in thought as she waited for everyone to arrive for breakfast. The three helpful fairies were invited to breakfast, so they took their places at the table. The other lords, ladies and knights of the castle were there and the king's bishop in charge of the Christian church of the land and the faith and spiritual lives of his people, gave the blessing.

Bishop Matthew prayed, "Dear Lord of heaven and earth, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the bounty you have given us, and especially for the victory over that evil creature who brought so much darkness and suffering to our land and sorely grieved our good king's family, separating father and mother from their beloved daughter and threatening the innocent princess' life. We thank the three good fairies who have helped our kingdom and our princess so much, and we thank Prince Philip for his heroism and rejoice for the love he has found with Princess Aurora and rejoice over their betrothal. Please bless our meal and continue to provide for us from your bounty. Please protect us from harm with your might and let King Stefan rule us wisely and kindly with your blessing, and let him pass his wisdom to Prince Philip and Princess Aurora. Amen."

The cook and kitchen maids arrived bringing out the day's breakfast on trays. For breakfast that morning the cook had fixed blueberry pancakes with bacon, breakfast tea and coffee for those who wanted it.

"It's so nice having someone else do the cooking." said Fauna.

"I love pancakes, especially pancakes with berries. I must compliment the cook, these pancakes are delicious." Aurora said. "My three aunts would fix pancakes with blueberries and blueberry syrup at our cottage in the forest. I know the perfect place in the forest to pick blue berries and other wild berries as well. You have to be careful where you go and when you go because the bears in the forest like fresh berries too and sometimes you will see them there eating the berries."

"The king and I rarely get the chance to go into the forest, what with our royal duties and considering how dangerous it can be." said Queen Aurelia. "I have heard the cook say he gets his berries from his friends' gardens and sometimes he does go into the woods for wild berries. Our castle has a garden with more than just pretty roses, outside the kitchen the gardeners and kitchen servants grow vegetables, fruit and herbs to supply us with food. Unfortunately we do not grow berries in the castle garden. We do have a nice cherry orchard though. Perhaps we could go for a walk in the garden after breakfast."

"I would like that very much, your majesty." Aurora replied.

"Oh please don't be so formal with us, after all we are your parents. I don't expect you to be able to call us Father and other right away, but perhaps you could start by calling us Stefan and Aurelia." Aurora's royal father told his newly acquainted daughter.

"It will take some getting used to, living in a royal castle and being a princess, having servants to do all the work and wait on me, having beautiful dresses and jewels to wear, eating dinner at grand feasts in a magnificent dining room full of noble guests and dancing for hours into the night at splendid balls, it all sees like a dream come true. But I know I will have to be responsible and have royal duties, I have decisions to make and must plan important events and royal parties. I might not be able to go into the forest to see my woodland friends as often as I would like, or see my aunts that often. I am afraid I don't know how to be a princess. I fear I will make some childish clumsy mistake and humiliate my whole kingdom." Aurora admitted her doubts.

"Oh, don't worry about making mistakes, dear. You have natural grace and beauty and are a very sweet, polite, kind, and well-mannered girl I a proud to call my daughter. Flora Fauna and Meriwether raised you well, I only wish I could have raised you myself. Oh how I would have spoiled and cherished you my darling daughter! You have no idea the agony Stefan and I have been through to have our only child taken away from us for her own safety. We knew you were near but could not see you, touch you, talk to you or have anything to do with you with you for fear of what that foul old wicked fairy Malificent would do to you. Always so close, yet so far apart." Queen Aurelia revealed how she felt about missing her daughter's growing-up years.

"From your unusual upbringing you have useful skills that most young princesses do not that may prove to be helpful in the future." the queen continued. "As a young girl I was raised in my father's castle and taught how to be a ladylike princess and a good queen to my royal husband. I'm sure our three wonderful fairy friends raised and taught you well. It certainly must have been exciting living in the woods. Don't worry about all the rules of etiquette, I will start teaching you everything I know right away, and since I am sure you are a fast learner like me, you will learn the in not time at all!"

"Ahem!" interrupted King Hugo. "I am sure the girl's manners are already fine enough. But what about my son Philip? He is desperately in love with the girl! We have a royal wedding to plan!"

"Um, Father, really, I would rather wait and get to know Princess Aurora better before I marry her. After all, we did just meet."

"Harrumph, what's there to wait for? Aurora loves you, you love her, she is the princess I betrothed you to when you were a little boy. She is your perfect match, boy! You don't want to let a treasure like her slip through your fingers."

"I am all for a wedding, and of course a grand royal wedding will take quite a while to plan, so during that time Philip and Aurora can become better acquainted. The bride and groom have the opportunity to fall deeper in love during the engagement period. It will take two or three years to plan this wedding, so that will give them plenty of time to spend in each other's company." King Stefan said.

"I do love Aurora, and I do want to marry her some day." Prince Philip declared.

"And I love Philip, and I want to marry him some day too." Princess Aurora said looking at her beloved prince sweetly.

"I would like to take things slow, this is all so new to me." Aurora said.

"Well, let's finish breakfast and then we will give you a tour of the castle and castle grounds." King Stefan said.


	4. Chapter 4

A Princess is a Friend Forever

Chapter Four: The Little Mermaid Becomes apart of Prince Eric's World

Ariel ran out of the sea waves on the new legs her father King Triton had just given her and into Prince Eric's arms. Her handsome human prince lay on the beach after the sea witch's storm had cleared. The evil sea witch Ursula had been killed by Eric and would trouble them no more. Eric saw his beloved dream girl Ariel, who had turned out to be a mermaid, rise from the sea waters. He rose to his feet and watched in amazement as she rose up on human legs, covered by a magnificent sparkling azure blue sleeveless dress, another gift from her father the Sea King, who Eric could see on a rock in the distant sea with his magical trident, who was the cause of this transformation. The Sea King, ruler of all the mermen and mermaids, had decided to let go of his youngest daughter. Seeing how deeply in love she was with the human prince, who had fought valiantly to save her from Ursula, he decided to let the young lovers be together, even if it meant giving Ariel legs and leaving her in the care of Eric to live in the surface world of humans.

Ariel and Eric embraced, they kissed passionately, and Eric lifted Ariel up and twirled her around, they were so happy to be together.

"It was you all along." Prince Eric said. "You are my dream girl."

"Oh Eric, I wanted to tell you. I made a deal with the sea witch in order to become human and live in your world with you. You see my father hated humans and forbid all mer-people from going up to the surface. I fell in love with you after rescuing you from drowning. Then my father found out about it and was so angry he destroyed my collection of human stuff that I got from shipwrecks.

I was so sad I went with the eels to see Ursula the sea witch, my father's enemy. She tricked me. I have heard rumors of her powerful magic and what happens to the mer-people who make deals with her, but I was desperately in love with you and would do anything to be with you. I traded my voice to the sea witch for legs to be human. I only had three days to win your heart, sweet Eric, if you did not kiss me with true love's kiss by then, than it would be over and I would go back into the ocean and my soul would belong to Ursula as one of the sea weed ghouls in her garden of captured souls."

"That explains a lot." Eric said. "When I first met you on the beach after you rescued me from the shipwreck I wondered why a girl who had just saved a prince's life from drowning did not stay to hear the prince thank her and receive a royal reward. I wasn't ready to believe the sailors' tales of mermaids and mermen, but I thought that if they did exist, if would be very exciting to meet one of the me folk. Your beautiful song stuck in my head, and I wondered if you were real or if I had dreamed you up. I could not get your lovely face or angelic voice out of my head, so I searched all over the kingdom for you."

"I was so happy when I saw you on the beach wearing nothing but rags made out of an old ship's sail. I recognized your face as the face of my true love, but then you couldn't speak, and before you sang to me like an angel in a heavenly voice. Max certainly seemed to know you. Even though you couldn't speak, you showed me what a unique treasure you are, I definitely would have given you the kiss of true love in three days if that horrible sea monster hadn't of interfered and cheated on your deal with her. She deceived me with her black magic when she took on human for, I thought Ursula was my dream girl and wanted to marry her. How could I have been so stupid to think that hideous fat squid sorceress was a pretty young human maiden, much less the one who saved me from drowning?

"Don't blame yourself Eric, Daddy has told me how powerful Ursula's magic is." Ariel said. "Let's go back to the palace."

Eric's tutor Grimsby came out looking for Eric along the seashore. With him was some of the prince's guards from the palace, a few servants, Carlotta, the palace housekeeper, and Max, Eric's dog, a large, friendly, and slobery gray and white sheepdog.

"Eric, where are you? Grimsby called out loudly, searching the beaches for signs of life. "Eric, are you all right?"

"Over here, Grimsby." Eric replied. Grimsby, and the staff from the palace of Nautica kingdom, Prince Eric's kingdom, found the young prince and his mermaid lover, now a young human woman with legs, thanks to her father's gift of transformation with his powerful, magic trident that held the power of the seven seas and oceans.

"Oh, Eric, I' so glad to see you are unharmed. You really must stop throwing yourself into danger like this…. Oh, Miss Ariel, so good to see you got away from that vile creature! I um….." Grimsby looked down at her legs, with the hem of her glittering sky blue silky dress swaying around her knees. The hem ended about two inches below the knees. "Oh my, I could have sworn…."

"Yes, Grimsby, I really did have a fish tail. I am, or rather, I was, a mermaid. I come from the sea all around you, and I rescued Eric from drowning and then slipped back into the sea so you would not catch me as a mermaid. The fat ugly and evil squid woman you saw was Ursula, the sea witch. Ursula was a troublemaker in my undersea home of Merlantica ever since my father King Triton banished her from the sea palace and Merlantica city for murdering my mother Queen Adria and starting an uprising where she tried to take over the throne of Merlantica. Desperate mer-people who went to the witch and made contracts with her often ended up as seaweed ghouls in her lair if they failed to fulfill their end of the bargain. I knew the risks when I went to her after my dad destroyed my collection of human stuff when he found out that I had rescued Eric, and that I had been disobeying his laws to stay away from shipwrecks and have nothing to do with human stuff. I traded my voice with Ursula for legs and three days on land with Eric. If I could get Eric to fall in love with me and give me the kiss of true love before the sun sets on the third day, I would stay human forever. But if I failed, I would turn back into a mermaid and be another doomed soul part of Ursula's collection. What Ursula really wanted was to get my daddy to trade his soul for mine, and take the punishment meant for me for failing to get Eric to kiss me. Then she could get Daddy's trident and crown and rule the oceans herself."

"When Ursula saw how close Eric and I were getting, she started cheating and eventually disguised herself as Vanessa and Eric loved her and thought she was the girl who had saved him from the shipwreck. He planned to marry her immediately, and that meant I was through. My friend Scuttle the seagull discovered Vanessa was really the sea witch and I made plans to stall the wedding with my friends Sebastian the crab and Flounder the fish. I jumped into water and held on to a barrel; flounder pulled me to the wedding ship. Sebastian went in search of my father. Scuttle gathered all the seashore animals to stall the wedding."

Grimsby laughed. "Oh yes, it was quite a riot, sea gulls, pelicans, and all kinds of sea birds attacking the bride and covering her in bird dung and fish guts, seals and sea lions climbing aboard the ship, going after the bride, I wondered why those sea animals had it in for the poor young lady, then I saw you come aboard the ship, and Vanessa's shell necklace broke, which released….your voice! As soon as you could talk I knew you were the girl for Eric and that Vanessa was an imposter. Then I saw your legs turn into a fish tail and Vanessa turn into the octopus/squid monster and she grabbed you and jumped off the ship. I'm now glad that Eric went after you and was able to slay that octopus witch with the jagged prow of the sunken ship. Very bravely done my boy! I didn't think mermaids were real, this has all been quite a shock for me."

"Grimsby, Your highness, I think we should go back to the palace and prepare some good food and a hot bath for the two of you after being in such a frightening storm. Let's not stand here on the beach babbling about what happened all day." Carlotta said.

"Of course." Grimsby said. Eric held Ariel's hand and asked her, "You will come home with me?" "Yes Eric, I want to stay with you forever."

Eric and Ariel left the beach and went back to Eric's palace overlooking the sea.

Ariel sighed as she soaked in a bubble bath in a huge sea shell shaped tub in the luxurious bath room in Eric's palace. The bubble bath solution was scented with a rose perfume, and fresh rose petals from just-picked pink and white roses from the gardens floated on the surface of the hot foamy water. Porcelain and gold vases filled with bouquets of beautiful pink and white roses decorated the elegant luxurious bathroom. The floor was made of white, pink, green, gray and black marble tiles in an attractive geometric design. There was an enormous mirror with a fancy gold frame of roses, leaves, butterflies and cherubs, and a white marble sink and counter with drawers for holding cosmetics and toiletries. There were a few chairs and stools in the room, several racks and hooks for hanging towels and clothing, a wash basin on a stand in case the sink was not suitable for washing, a closet, and the big tub of course.

Carlotta washed her long, thick wavy brilliant red hair with rose-scented shampoo as Ariel relaxed. She rinsed her hair with warm water from a bucket and Ariel cleaned her body with a fresh bar of rose scented soap and a sea sponge then rinsed off in the hot water of the tub. When she was done with her bath she got out and dried off with a towel.

Ariel got dressed in white linen undergarments, pantalettes, camisolle and a petticoat. Looking through all the dresses her size in the royal wardrobe, Ariel finally chose a deep green cotton summer dress with sea green ruffles at the neck and sleeves. The skirt was divided down the middle to reveal a sea green under-skirt. She wore matching slippers on her feet. Ariel sat in a chair in front of a large mirror while Carlotta combed and brushed her hair.

"So it turns out you're a mermaid, Miss Ariel. I've always believed in mermaids, ever since the days my gram and mom told me fairy tales about them when I was a little girl.

"What kind of things do people say about mermaids?" Ariel asked.

"Well, for one thing," Carlotta continued. "The sailors say that mermaids use codfish bones to comb their hair."

"Yuck, ew, gross!" Ariel exclaimed. "Comb our hair with fish bones? Where did you people get an idea like that? We have hair combs made from seashells. One of my sisters has a coral hair comb. My sister Andrina has a coral tiara set with little pearls, and Alanna has a coral hand mirror. Arista's hand mirror has a shell frame. We mermaids are very vain about our hair, we use shells, pearls, pieces of coral and aquatic plants to decorate our hair, and sometimes we put up our hair in pony tails or buns, we even braid our hair sometimes, but rarely on special occasions." Ariel said to her maid.

"I wondered why you thought the dinner fork was for combing your hair. I wondered if you were a princess from a far away land shipwrecked on our shores or the victim of a pirate attack. I thought you might come from the East, from places like China, where they eat with sticks; perhaps they comb their hair with forks there. Now I know you come from the sea. Speaking of hair arranging, how do you want me to fix your hair right now? Perhaps a braid with big green bows?" Carlotta asked.

Ariel thought for a minute. "Yes, Carlotta, put it in a braid, I'll see how that looks."

The maid braided the mermaid-turned human's scarlet red silky long hair. She started off by gathering it all at the back of the head, the nape of the neck and tying it up with a wide sea green satin ribbon, then she braided the long pony tail that resulted from this into a tight, neat thick braid and tied the end with a smaller sea green ribbon. Ariel's long bangs were swept back from one side of her head across her forehead over to the other side.

"There. Now you look beautiful, like the princess you are, my lady Ariel."

Ariel giggled, looking at her reflection in the mirror. "Oh, thank you, Carlotta! I hope Eric thinks I'm beautiful."

Carlotta escorted Ariel to the dining room where Eric waited for her. Eric stood up and went to Ariel, taking her dainty hand. Prince Eric wore a light yellow-green vest with silver buttons and embroidery over a white shirt, along with olive-green pants and brown boots. Eric kissed Ariel's hand.

"I hope you enjoy dinner tonight. No seafood at all. I promise. The chef fixed roast chicken, house salad, French onion soup and chocolate turtle cake for dessert."

"I'm not familiar with those foods, but I'm willing to try them." Ariel said. "It's better than eating fish."

Eric helped her get seated in the elegant chairs and then they said the blessing when everyone was seated at the dinner table. The food on the table smelled delicious and looked delicious too. Ariel ate her salad of fresh garden vegetable with some croutons and a ranch salad dressing. It was pretty good. Next she tried the French onion soup, that Eric warned her about being too hot. She gave it some time to cool before trying the gooey layer of melted mozzarella cheese that covered the bowl. The cheese and sweet flavorful broth of onion soup beneath it were delicious. Ariel found she liked the onion soup with melted mozzarella cheese very much. The roast chicken surprised her, she found out it was animal meat with bones underneath!

"Eric," she said, "This chicken, it is meat!"

"Yes, I know, and very delicious meat at that. Chicken is very good for you, very low in fat and has a lot of healthy protein. Of course it can be bland, so the cooks have a variety of different ways of cooking it. They add herbs and spices to give it a good taste and this recipe for garlic roasted chicken is and old one of Chef Louis' that my family has enjoyed for years, ever since I was a little boy."

Eric said.

"But Eric, it's meat! We're eating the body of some poor unfortunate animal that was brutally killed, it's innocent life snuffed out for our dining pleasure, and we are eating the corpse of another living creature, whose death is our fault…."

"Oh…." Eric stopped eating. "I should have known that you were a vegetarian, I guess all merpeople are vegetarians you must eat undersea plants. I should have known you wouldn't like any meat, not just fish. Carlotta, please take the chicken away."

Carlotta had overheard the conversation. "Yes your highness." She gathered up the chicken on a platter and took it back to the kitchen.

"This is a problem." Eric said. "I guess it means that now the whole castle will have to be vegetarian. "I've heard of vegetarians before, some of them live in the town, I've tried it once myself but Grimsby, Carlotta and Louis kept pressuring me to eat meat again until I finally gave up and started eating meat once again. It will be difficult to go vegetarian again, and of course I cannot force the castle staff to give up eating meat and fish. But as for myself and my most trusted friends, for your sake, my love we will not eat any more animals. How do you feel about milk products and eggs?

"I have no problem with milk, it does now hurt the sea cow, or land cow to be milked." Ariel said. "And I like cheese, it is new to me, but the melted mozzarella cheese on my onion soup bowl was delicious. I don't think it is cruel to animals to milk them and use their milk. In Merlantica it was against the law to eat fish eggs, or any kind of egg because it was an unborn life form, a potential form of life and the eggs should be allowed to hatch and grow into fish and live."

"So I can't have my eggs for breakfast?" Eric pouted. "With chicken eggs it's different. The hen lays a bunch of eggs and most of them are not fertilized, there is no baby chick inside it. They are just empty eggs without an embryo. If the hen has been with her lover the rooster, then they have a family together, then the eggs will be fertilized with the baby chicks inside. Unfortunately most of these chicks will be doomed to become lunch or dinner when they get older, so chicken families are not very happy ones."

"That is why we are vegetarians in my father's kingdom. Animals deserve the chance to be happy just as much as people. I have a lot of sea animals for friends, and I would never dream of eating any of them, or their eggs. The animals in the sea talk to me, and they can be just as smart as I am. They are an equal part of Merlantican society. You love Max very much and he is your friend, you would not want him to get hurt or eaten would you?"

"Things are different on land. Max is my pet. Dogs are pets, pets are not meant for food. The animals here can't speak our language, they are not very intelligent, and they behave very differently from humans. For your sake, no more meat or eggs on the palace menu. This means I might have to find another chef. Now, no more arguing, time for dessert! Bring out the cake!" said Eric.

The servants cleared away the plates and brought out the delicious rich chocolate turtle cake. There were no actual turtles in the cake; it was called "turtle" in reference to the chocolate caramel candies filled with pecans.

"There's no meat in it, no animal products except for milk and eggs, unfertilized eggs with no baby chicks that is." Eric said. "It has the most delicious food on earth in it, chocolate."

"I've never had chocolate before. Where does it come from?" Ariel asked.

"From a tree, the seed pod of the cacao tree in far away tropical lands. There are many baked goods on our surface world here that are delightful that call for milk and eggs. I hope you will change your mind about chicken's eggs. Go on try the cake, you'll love it."

Ariel looked at the chocolate cake and it did indeed look very tempting and delicious. At her sweetheart's urging she could not resist. She put her fork into the dark brown chocolate and caramel moist icing of the slice of rich artfully arranged decadent cake and took a bite. Mmm, Eric was right, she did love it! And explosion of sweet, intense, rich, deep, warm chocolate and caramel flavors, with some chopped pecans, sinfully delicious, melted in her mouth. She saved the sweet rich flavors and chewed very slowly or not at all, determined to make each bite last as long as possible.

Eric ate his own cake and chuckled at the expression on Ariel's face. Even if the castle did have to go vegetarian, he was sure that Ariel would still allow baked desserts with eggs, she would still permit dairy and egg products, he would make sure of that once he showed her how delicious they were.

"Oh Eric, this is heaven!" Ariel exclaimed.

Eric grinned. "I knew you would like it. Everybody likes chocolate."

"You are right, it is very delicious! I've never had anything like it before. It is wonderful, I love it!"

"Well, I must warn you that chocolate is fattening, so are nearly all other sweets and baked goods. I'd hate to see you gain weight and lose your beautiful figure."

"I promise I won't get fat." Ariel said. "We had desserts in my world under the sea too. "There was seaweed soufflé, sand cakes, kelp cakes, kelp pie, sea berry pie, and sea berry muffins. I ate desserts at home under the sea and I never got fat. I usually stay active and like to exercise, that keeps me fit, plus I eat small amounts. I was always swimming around, going places, and my father really didn't like that."

"We can go for walks here. I have a stable full of horses you can ride. I have one horse who's a lot of fun, his name is Zephyr. There's plenty of sports game people like to play on land that keep us in shape. There's baseball, soccer, basketball, tennis, volleyball, football, golf, and badminton that are popular human sports games, and un to play. I'll teach you how to play them. The royal doctor at the castle makes sure I eat healthy and get plenty of exercise, so that limits the amount of sweets we can eat. They really are very bad for your health. We only have dessert once in a while for special occasions like this." Eric informed her.

"Of course, my father had the same rule. He wouldn't let us eat dessert all the time. We had plenty of games like that in Merlantis, I loved to ride my seahorse Stormy and race him with other seahorses. I played games where you hit a ball over a fisherman's net stretched out between two tall rocks on either side." said Ariel.

"I will give you a tour of the sports grounds tomorrow." Eric told her.

Ariel smiled. "I would like that a lot, Eric." Ariel wiped her mouth with the linen napkin and rose from the table. Eric also rose from his seat.

"That was a scrumptious meal." He told Carlotta. "Please give my compliments to Chef Louis. Oh, and inform him that the castle cuisine will be going vegetarian, so no more meat in his cooking. That means he doesn't need to buy meat or fish anymore from the markets. Won't Louis be relieved?" Eric left the table while the servants cleared away the dishes. Ariel followed him.

"Um, yes, your highness, I'm sure Louis will be, um, err, quite relieved." Carlotta said, looking doubtful and uncomfortable at being the one to give Chef Louis the disappointing news. Carlotta went off to the kitchen.

"It's getting late; it's time for the sun to set. Let's watch the sun set from the balcony." Eric took Ariel's hand and led her across the room.

The balcony was in the ball room, next to the dining room. It was big and had an elegant carved rail. The balcony overlooked the beach, and the small seashore garden with flowers that grew in the sandy soil of the beach. Sea daisy, seaside goldenrod, sea oats, sea purslane, sea lavender, seashore mallow, beach morning glory, and railroad vine grew on the beach in a little seashore garden.

Oh what a beautiful sunset! It reminds me of when the coral is in bloom under the sea." Ariel said. "I've only seen a few sunsets, when I snuck above to the surface while no one was watching. My father forbids the people of Merlantis from going to the surface." Ariel said.

"From now on you can see one just every evening." Eric said. "My mother, Queen Karen, will be coming home soon with my little brother Derek. They have been away visiting my Uncle Hans's kingdom. Mom will be glad to meet you."

"I look forward to meeting your family. I hope they will like me. I hope your mother doesn't mind having a mermaid in the family." said Ariel as she snuggled against Eric. Eric wrapped his arms around her.

"Your father was not to keen at the idea of having a human son in law. But after the danger of that evil sea witch is gone, he must understand now that humans are not as bad as he thought. I didn't even believe in mermaids and mermen until the sea witch exposed you and I saw you with your fish tail underneath your dress. I always imagined it would be exciting and interesting if there were merpeople, they could help me explore the depths of the ocean, like I always wanted too. Now I have fallen in love with a beautiful mermaid, not just any mermaid, a mermaid princess, the daughter of King Triton himself. Since King Triton gave you legs to live on land with me, I take it he must approve of me as a son in law.

"Eric, do you mean…" Ariel began.

"Yes, Ariel, what I'm trying to say is, will you marry me?" Eric asked.

"Oh Eric, yes, yes of course! Oh, I've waited so long for you to say that! I love you so much Eric!"

Ariel kissed him passionately as she threw her arms around his neck. The sun sank lower and lower below the horizon flooding the sea with warm colors. Now the kingdom of humans living on land by the seashore and the kingdom of merpeople living in the sea by the beach would be united by love, and together they would plan a grand royal wedding.


	5. Chapter 5

Belle woke up the morning after she broke the spell on the beast and turned him back into a human prince. She sat up and tried to remember last night's events; to separate what really happened from her dreams. There was a knock at the door.

"Come in." Belle said sleepily. "Good morning, dear." Mrs. Potts said sweetly as she entered Belle's bedroom with a tray of tea.

"Isn't it a lovely day today, Belle dear." Mrs. Potts said as she set the tray down on Belle's dresser. Belle yawned and rubbed her eyes. She pulled back the covers and got out of bed. Mrs. Potts poured a cup of tea for her from the pot.

"Yes, the sun is shining brightly this morning." Belle said. "Spring has come early this year, and it will be warmer than usual."

"Would you like cream and sugar for your tea?" Mrs. Potts asked Belle.

"Yes, both please." Belle replied. Belle went to her closet. The castle seamstress, Sophie, once a famous fashion designer, was no longer enchanted into the form of a humanoid talking, walking wardrobe. Belle's true love, once in the form of a hideous, ornery beast, had now been at last returned to his true human form. He was a prince transformed into a beast as punishment for his selfishness and cold heart by a mysterious fairy. When the beast learned to love Belle, a common village girl from the nearby village, daughter of the old inventor Maurice, and Belle learned to love him and opened up his heart, the spell was broken just in time. After dancing with her prince, who's real name was Armand, at the ball celebrating their victory against Gaston, a vain, selfish, arrogant jerk of a hunter who wanted to kill the beast to get to Belle, whom he desired as his wife. Gaston tried to kill the beast, Prince Armand, but Armand was able to defeat him, and killed Gaston by accident.

Belle still found it strange looking at Mrs. Potts in her human form. She had gotten use to her as a talking, automatically moving round tea pot with an animated, human-like face. The real flesh and blood Mrs. Potts exactly resembled the round cheery tea kettle. The servants had been changed into animated furniture and dishes, household goods, by the fairy's spell. When Belle broke the spell on the prince, it broke the spell on the servants as well, and now they were all human again.

Belle opened the closet and went through the dresses there. "What should I wear today? She looked at a blue dress with a high collar and leg of mutton sleeves. "Too stuffy." She came across a sleeveless white lace dress. "This is for summer when it's hot. I'd be too cold wearing it now." She found a pink satin dress with laces ruffles and roses. "Much too fancy for every day wear, more fit for a ball. She came across a black wool dress. "Yuck, that one must be for a funeral." The next dress was a lavender and pink silk short sleeve dress with white lace and pink bows. It would make a very pretty ball gown or party dress. "This is very pretty, but not for right now."

A rather loud knock on their door was heard just then. "Yoohoo! Mademoiselle Belle! Madam Potts! Bonjour! Are you in there? It's me, Sophie. Boy have I got the dress for you!" Sophie used to be the wardrobe that held belle's clothes when she was furniture while under the spell. She was the castle seamstress.

Mrs. Potts opened the door. Sophie pranced in, holding a crimson velvet dress with amethyst beads and gold ribbon trim over her shoulder.

"This will look wonderful on you." She suggested to Belle.

Belle tried on the pretty red velvet dress with three-quarter length sleeves and a heart-shaped neckline. The dress had gold ribbon trim at the neckline, cuffs and hem, and a purple amethyst set with pearls and gold at the neckline. There was gold embroidery on the skirt.

" It looks like this is the right one for you, Belle." Mrs. Potts told her. She looked into the mirror.

"My hair is a mess." belle sat down in a chair in front of her vanity set while Mrs. Potts combed and brushed her hair. "I'll fix it for you, Miss Belle. Sophie will you please find Belle's stockings and shoes? Then we need some jewelry to match, a bit of powder and perfume, and Mademoiselle will be ready to go down stairs for breakfast. Prince Armand should be up by now and getting ready himself."

In his bedroom, Prince Armand was being tended to by his trusted servants Lumiere and Cogsworth. Armand had all of the clothes in his wardrobe tossed about his lavish bedroom. He currently wore a royal blue frock coat trimmed in fancy silver embroidery and silver buttons set with tiny sapphires, over black silk breeches and white silk tights, over a fancy linen shirt with plenty of lace.

"How does this look?" He asked his servants.

"I recommend less lace, sir." Cogsworth said.

"It's all very well, your majesty, but I heard a rumor that Belle is wearing red today, and she wants you to match colors with her." Lumiere said.

"Are you sure?" Armand, once a beast who wore nothing but breeches after losing his humanity, asked.

"Yes, your majesty. I think this red coat with those black breeches would look marvelous on you."

Prince Armand took off the royal blue coat and changed into the red coat with gold braid and buttons.

Once he was fully dressed, Armand combed his hair while looking in the mirror. Lumiere stood on a stool and tied back the prince's amber colored hair with a black velvet band. Armand used a bit of pomade in his hair to keep it in place. He had already shaved and splashed on his favorite cologne.

"I am so nervous. What will I say to her?" His servants were also the only friends he had.

"Tell her what is in your heart." Lumiere advised his master and friend.

"The language of love may seem complicated, but is as simple as the truth." Cogsworth said.

Armand moved closer to the window. He came to a card table with a glass vase that held a single rose. The rose was in full bloom and glowed with a magical pink sparkling luminescence. The crystalline water in the glass vase sparkled from the rose's magic. This was the magical rose the fairy gave him when she came to test him as a youth, ten years ago, as to whether his heart could love. Back then he had been selfish, vain, cold hearted, foolish, proud and arrogant. The fairy came to the young prince castle one night while his parents were gone and there was a cold winter storm disguised as a poor old beggar woman and offered him a single rose in return for shelter. The cruel prince ordered his guards to turn her out. She begged the prince continuously, warning him that things were not always as they seem. When the prince continued to refuse her shelter, old ugly, ragged and wrinkled as she was, the beggar took her true form as a magnificent fairy and punished the cold hearted prince by turning him into a hideous beast. He must find someone to love him and teach him to love before the last petal fell from the withered rose or else he too would die as a beast. The rose had only one petal left and was about to fall when Belle returned to her Beast and saved him with her love. Now, by the power of love, the beautiful pink rose would bloom as long as Belle and Armand lived, which would be a long time, and would be a testimony to their love. Armand carefully touched to silky petals with his finger tips. He breathed in the sweet fragrance of the rose. He looked out the window and noticed spring had come, the flowers were in bloom, the winter snow was melting.

Armand decided to visit the greenhouse and garden before going to the dining room for breakfast. He wanted to surprise Belle.

Belle walked down the stairs holding up the long skirt of her crimson red dress.

"Bonjour, Mademoiselle." said Babette the chamber maid as she dusted the armchair in the sitting room that Belle passed through. Pretty Babette had her black hair in a French knot and wore her black maid's dress with a white apron. She curtsied when she saw Belle. "Ze chef has prepared breakfast in ze dining room. He has cooked croissants with ham and cheese omelet."

"It sounds perfectly delicious. Bonjour to you Babette." Belle said.

Belle walked down the hallway where she met Fifi, the other made, and said Bonjour to her to. Then she reached the dining room and to her disappointment Armand was not their. She sat down at her place while the servants served breakfast. She could not eat until the Master of the castle, Prince Armand arrived. Belle had been worried about being late herself and keeping Armand, former grumpy beast who would be angered at her tardiness in making him wait to eat, at least the old cranky selfish beast would, but the new gentleman Prince Armand would not, found she was the one that had to wait on her love.

Armand went to the green house first, because he knew he could find the best flowers there, no matter what the season, and he would not get his boots as dirty as he would going through the rest of the garden. The castle gardener had been very busy, since the arrival of Belle, and there were many flowers, especially roses, to chose from. Armand chose a lot of roses of various colors. He found several good red roses, many different pretty shades of pink, some white ones, yellows and peaches, and a few lavender and purple beauties. He gathered up a bouquet of roses of the best finest, richest colors he could find. Armand took his bouquet of roses into the castle. He found Chip with the dog Bon-bon and asked him to find a vase for the roses. Chip found a cut crystal vase for the roses, his elder brother Chris carried he vase without dropping it to him and they filled it with water from the pump.

Armand's friends helped him cut the thorns off the roses, cut the rose stems and arrange them in the vase with water.

Belle was surprised when she saw Armand enter the dining room holding a large crystal vase filled with colorful roses that covered his face. With a servants help he set the face down in he middle of the table.

"This table needed some flowers." He said. "These are for you. What color rose would you prefer for your hair?"

"Oh Armand, they're beautiful." Belle said. "I love roses. My favorite is the one that almost died, the one we brought back to life together. That rose is the most magical and beautiful of all, the special rose dearest to my heart I'll always treasure."

"You can see that rose anytime you like in my room. You are welcome their always, from now on I can forbid you nothing; you opened my heart and showed me how to love. You saved my life and my world, now I want you to be a part of my world forever, a world of roses blooming in the sunshine where we can sing and dance together and tell our children stories; A world where you are my princess. I love you Belle and can't imagine living without you. Please say you will marry me?"


	6. Chapter 6

Disney Fan Fiction:

A Princess is a Friend Forever

Chapter 6

"Today is a brand new day for me!" Princess Jasmine said as she got off her bed and walked around her room. She hugged her pet tiger Rajah.

"Oh Rajah, I dreamt about him all night! That day he saved me from that horrible merchant in the market place, and when he cleverly tricked Jafar into making the wrong wish that would imprison him as a genie, all I could see in my dreams was Aladdin being my hero. Aladdin is so wonderful; he doesn't need the genie to win my heart. He was a lowly street rat when I first met him, but I saw his kindness and courage when he saved me from having my hand cut off. He must have thought I was just some poor crazy girl who led a sheltered life and had run away from home for the first time and didn't know what she was doing. You think Aladdin is must better than those stuck up pompous conceited princes who came to the palace all the time to win my hand in marriage, don't you Rajah?"

Rajah gave a confirmative growl.

"Well, I suppose I should get dressed and go down to breakfast."

Jasmine's maid, Amina, who has taken care of her since she was a small child, came into the room.

"Good morning, Princess. I'm sure you will want to look your best today for Aladdin."

Jasmine found a peach ensemble to wear. It had a peach silk top with gold sequins on the front. The long peach silk skirt had slits on the sides and plenty of gold sequins. On her feet were fashionable gold sandals. She wore gold jewelry, bracelets, earrings, a necklace, and a gold tiara. Her long thick shiny black hair hung down from a pony tail at the top of her head.

Jasmine, Amina, and Rajah walked through the palace halls and to the veranda where her father the Sultan was eating breakfast with some of his advisers. Aladdin arrived, dressed in his 'Prince Ali' clothes. A servant poured the Sultan a glass of orange juice.

"Good morning, Jasmine! I hope you slept well; I could hardly sleep a wink with all of last night's excitement. Aladdin, I am happy to see you. I hope you find our palace guest quarters comfortable, since it is my wish that you stay with us for a very long time."

"I love the palace, Sultan!" Aladdin said. "It is everything I dreamed it would be.

"I'm glad you like it here. Now let's say the blessing prayer so we can eat. My orange juice is getting warm." Everyone knelt down and bowed their heads as the sultan said the prayer good Muslims say to bless their food before eating, to thank Allah for His bounty in providing them with food for their nourishment and pleasure.

After praying the Sultan began to drink his orange juice and then took a bite out of a fig pastry.

"Wow, pastries! I hadn't had one of those in ages." Aladdin said. He grabbed a pastry and began to gobble it down. Abu the monkey was amazed by all the food, in particular all the fruit in a large silver bowl. His monkey eyes opened wide as he exclaimed over the great variety of delicious breakfast food. He went for the fig pastries, but Aladdin stopped him.

"You know what happens to you when you have too much sugar, Abu. You get hyper. Eat the fruit instead. Look, there's a nice ripe banana for you." Abu grabbed the banana and ran back onto Aladdin's shoulder. There, he peeled the banana and ate it.

"Not very good table manners, Aladdin. But then again, our cook Fatima's fig pastries are the best in all the seven deserts. Who can blame you for gobbling them own? I try to watch my figure, so I won't have one. Father, the doctor said you needed to go on a diet. The fig pastries are fattening and have a lot of sugar in them. It would be better for you to eat fresh fruit for breakfast."

The Sultan frowned. "Yes, I know what the doctors says. If I did what the doctor says, I would be thin and miserable, but lived to be very old. What good does it do to live to be old if you are thin and miserable and can never eat something good and tasty or have any fun? The doctor is a stick in the mud."

"Remember that you are the Sultan, Father. You must stay healthy for your people. The people of Agrabah need you. I need you." said Jasmine to her father.

"Just as I need you, dear Jasmine. You are my only child, my only heir. I will not live forever, and when my time comes you must take your place on the throne as Sultana of Agrabah. Whoever you chose for a husband will rule with you as Sultan." said the Sultan.

"Sultan?" Aladdin felt himself grow dizzy. "Does that mean….you all know I love Jasmine…..if I marry her…."

"Yes, Aladdin, if you marry me you may become sultan one day."

Jasmine informed him.

"In my wildest dreams I never thought I could become sultan. This is it, Abu; our dreams are finally coming true! I have the love of a beautiful, lively princess, I live in the palace, everybody in Agrabah hails me as a hero for stopping Jafar, I don't have to steal to eat anymore, the Sultan likes me, his daughter the fantastic princess Jasmine loves me, we might even get married and maybe I could be the sultan in the future!


	7. Chapter 7

The guards at King George's castle bowed before Prince Ferdinand and Princess Snow White.

"Prince Ferdinand, it has been over two years since you left on your quest to liberate the people and princess of Bavaria. We remember what you look like from your royal portraits. Is the beauty beside you the fair princess of Bavaria? I assume you succeeded in your quest, my lord." the guard said.

"I must certainly did. I remember you too, Sir Gordon. I have succeeded in rescuing Princess Snow White of Bavaria. As for that evil witch her stepmother Queen Grimhilde, she is dead, I had help from friends in that matter. The people of Bavaria are free from the wicked witch's tyranny. I want to marry Snow White and unite our kingdoms, if she will agree to it. Snow White, my darling, this is Sir Gordon, one of the best castle guards, he is also an excellent archer and gets the boar every time we go hunting, but you will be please to know he does not like to hunt deer, he considers them to delicate, gentle and beautiful to be destroyed."

Sir Gordon bowed low from the waist down. He took Snow White's small delicate soft white hand and kissed the back of it.

"Good afternoon, your highness. It is a pleasure to meet such a beautiful, gentle, sweet refined young lady of royal blood. The king will be very happy his eldest son has returned with such a lovely princess for a bride."

Snow White curtsied. " Delighted to meet you, Sir Gordon. Thank you ever so much for the warm welcome. Being a castle guard must be difficult at times, I imagine there are boring moments. I'm glad you don't hunt deer."

"Yes, there are boring moments, but the exciting moments make up for the boring ones. I will delay you no longer, enter the castle and see your family." The guards opened the gates and Ferdinand and Snow White entered. They went through the courtyard and gardens and then to the main castle.

The guard there also recognized Prince Ferdinand. "Your Highness, the king will be delighted to hear of your return. I will send servants to tell him of your return with the Princess Snow White as a bride immediately.

Prudence, the royal administrator of social affairs, the housekeeper, met Ferdinand and Snow White in the entrance hall to the palace.

"Your majesties, you may desire to refresh yourselves before meeting the king." Prudence said. "I can show you to rooms where you can bathe and change your clothes."

"Yes, I would like that very much, Prudence." Ferdinand said.

"I would really like a nice hot bath and a new dress, too" Snow White agreed.

Prudence ordered a man servant named Wilbur to show Ferdinand to a bath room near his old bed room. She led Snow White to a large bathroom next to a guest bedroom.

The bathroom had a large tub made of porcelain on feet. There was a large full length mirror, towels hanging on racks, cabinets for towels, soap, shampoo, sponges, scrub brushes, and other bathing stuff. There was a thick rug to soak up the water that spilt onto the tiled floor from the tub.

A maid pouring hot water into the tub finished what she was doing, set the bucket down and curtsied before Snow White.

"Good afternoon, my lady." She said.

"Tamara, this is her royal highness Princess Snow White. She will be a guest of honor here at the castle. You are to serve her. You will help her bathe and then we will dress her in a royal dress fitting for a princess. Princess Snow White must look radiant when Prince Ferdinand introduces her to King George." Prudence said.

"Of course, Lady Prudence, we will take care of her. Did you say Prince Ferdinand? He's returned? Is Princess Snow White going to marry him? Of course you wouldn't want to make the same mistake like with that other girl that came here all in rags like some scullery maid; but Prince Charles seemed to be head over heels for her anyway-" The girl began to talk, blabbering away until Lady Prudence silenced her.

"Enough! Hold your tongue, girl! You would do well to learn not to gossip. Do not bother the princess with your chatter. I have other duties to attend to. I am sure King George will be delighted to see you once you are properly dressed. I will gather up some of the finest dresses and gowns from the castle wardrobe, also shoes, jewelry and headdresses. We will have you dressed beautifully when you meet his majesty the king. Ta-ta, my dear, I leave you in the hands of Tamara, a very capable maid. I have other duties to attend to. I will see you later on." Prudence left the room, and Snow White started her bath.

Meanwhile, King George demanded an answer from his son and the servant girl he was kissing, so an answer he would have.

"Father, Your Royal Majesty, King George of Alberta, may I introduce to you, Cinderella Good of Alberta, the Tremaine housekeeper, although the Tremaine house used to be the Good house, when her father Squire John Good was alive."

"Did you say squire? I think I have heard of Squire John Good."

Never mind, son I advice you to wait until after you are married to do that kind of kissing. Now, you said this girl's father was Squire John Good. I have heard of him, but it has been some years since he died. Explain yourself miss, are you a common servant girl or is your father a gentleman?" the king questioned Cinderella.

"Your Majesty, my father was a good man. He was a gentleman, minor nobility. Father was a merchant in fine goods, like rich cloth, silverware, jewelry, silver hand mirrors, brush and comb sets, music boxes, snow globes, porcelain dolls, porcelain figurines, paintings, ribbons, things like that. My mother died when I was very young, and my father wanted to find a stepmother to replace the wife and mother we had both lost. His only mistake was in marrying Lady Hortense Tremaine. Lady Tremaine moved into our house along with her two daughters from a previous marriage. At first all went well, but slowly Lady Tremaine began to take over. When Father got sick, Lady Tremaine took over, and eventually father died, and I was so sad. Lady Tremaine tricked my father into signing his will over to her, so that she would inherit the house and everything after he died. She forced me into a servant's place in my own home. I had to work as a maid, and do all the cleaning and cooking, or else Lady Tremaine would throw me in the street. She began to spend my father's money selfishly, buying fancy dresses and jewelry for herself and her daughters, and she earned a lot of debt, and used the inheritance money to pay her bills. My stepmother couldn't afford to keep all the servants, so she fired them all and made me do their work. I could have left and found a better job in town, but there was another reason why I stayed.

I still thought of it as my house, mainly because I knew the house better than my stepmother or stepsisters because I had to clean it every day. I wanted to keep the family together. I couldn't leave my house and let it fall to ruin because of them. And I still hoped, somehow, the Tremaines would have a change of heart and stop their cruelty and selfish evil ways and appreciate everything I do for them, and begin to like me, perhaps even love me, and treat me like family, and start doing the right thing and realize I'm part of the family and not their servant, and that they should help with the work instead of making me do all this drudgery."

"What a wicked woman to treat you in such a way! This Tremaine woman sounds like a horrible usurper, taking your rightful place as heir in your household and forcing you to act as a servant instead of treating you like a daughter." King George said.


	8. Chapter8

A Princess Is A Friend Forever

Chapter 8 A Deal With The Devil

At Cinderella's old house, the Tremaines were greatly afraid of Cinderella getting revenge for her mistreatment and abuse.

After she had left in the grand duke's carriage, her stepsisters Anastasia and Drizella immediately began arguing with each other, yelling and complaining loudly, each trying to out scream the other.

"SILENCE!" Lady Tremaine thundered at them as loud as she could. "Stop that bickering and listen to me. Cinderella will no doubt want revenge on us for all her years of drudgery. They only practical thing to do is to consult our friends in the basement."

"Oh mother, do you have to?" Drizella said.

"Are you sure about that, mother?" Anastasia said.

"It is the only practical thing to do. They are the only ones who can help us now." Lady Tremaine said.

Anastasia and Drizella shuddered. They were very frightened of the "friends" in the basement. They wondered if Cinderella ever knew about them. There is a reason Lady Tremaine named her cat Lucifer. The real Lucifer is her master, the Devil named Lucifer now known as Satan the Adversary. Lady Tremaine is a Satan-worshipping witch. Not all witches worship the Devil, perhaps not all Satan worshippers are witches. Lady Tremaine masquerades as a decent wealthy high class member of society that no one would suspect of devil worship and black magic. Perhaps it was better that Cinderella was gone, the girl was a Bible-believing born again Christian whose prayers and goodness filled the house with spiritual warfare and constantly oppressed and hurt the demons in the basement, Lady Tremaine tried everything to destroy Cinderella. She even tried summoning an evil demon fairy to deceive her, but that had backfired on her, for the fairy who came was a good fairy godmother aligned with Jesus Christ, a sort of guardian angel for Cinderella, the fairy tricked Lady Tremaine and helped Cinderella instead of taking her soul. If only Lady Tremaine could get a hold of that fairy or her wand, then she would have power over her. She could also try getting the evil fairies to attack the good fairy.

Hortense Tremaine prepared herself for the Satanic ritual. She dressed in her black hooded robe, and found a goat from the barnyard to sacrifice, and some pigeons. She went down into the basement and lit the black candles. She drew a circle of salt and then made it into a pentagram on the floor. She chanted backwards Latin as she tied up the goat and killed the goat with a curved dagger. Then she drew the blood into the shape of the pentagram and placed the black candles at the five star points.

The demons Beelzebub, Asmodeus and Sammael came to her in her mind, speak in evil hisses, and then materialized as black smoky shadowy shapes in the pentagram.

"Hail to Satan, hail to darkness and hail to evil." Lady Tremaine said.

"Greetings witch." The evil spirits spoke. "You serve us loyally, and shall enjoy the party in hell."

"My slave who serves the Enemy has escaped from me. She has caught the eye of the disgustingly good prince who runs the politics of this land. He wishes to marry her. I fear she may try to get revenge on me."

"Does not fear, Tremaine witch. She has the weakness of her faith. She will forgive, and not seek vengeance. She will forgive, love you and do nothing. In her weakness, lies your strength. You must pretend to be penitent, and pretend to be friend and family to her, and then betray her like Judas.

"How I admire your slyness, I have not thought of that." Lady Tremaine said to the demon trinity.

"That is because you are a stupid, weak pathetic mortal human being. You have the weakness of mortality and humanity. You humans are scum fit only to pleasure us demons in hell." Beelzebub said arrogantly.

"Yes, my lord." Tremaine bowed humbly before her devilish masters.

"Here is the plan. Living in the western forest are nine evil men who have given their hearts to Master Satan. They are bandits who rob and kill innocent travelers who pass through the forest and are greedy, ruthless and bloodthirsty. They know a little magic, but not as much as you do. Join with these bandits for revenge against your former slave Cinderella. Wait until after she marries the prince. If you have the bandits kidnap Cinderella and her prince, you could hold them for ransom, not just for money, but for power. But do not let anyone know that it is you who is behind the kidnapping scheme." The demon trinity gave this plan to Lady Tremaine.

"I will do as you say. Thank you for the advice. Farwell for now. I will speak to you again when Cinderella is my prisoner."

In the Forbidden Forest around Cinderella, Snow White and Aurora's kingdom, a group of nine bandits, young men age nineteen to twenty-five, sat around a fire in a clearing deep in the forest. The sixteen-year old girl named Kayla who was the girlfriend of the bandit leader, Anton, sat by the fire turning the deer cooking on the spit over the fire. Anton's men, Chris, Justin, Jason, Damian, Bill, Clarence, Vern, Robert, and Hank stood fixing weapons and gear. They had to repair arrows and bows, clean and sharpen swords, daggers and knives. They inspected their loot and hid the treasure. Their hideout was a cave by a stream nearby.

A stirring in the bushes alerted the bandits. A stranger had come across their camp.

Hank seized the intruder, a woman in a black cloak and black dress, the hood pulled over her head, her face hidden by a black mask. .He held his dagger to her throat.

"Do you know where yer at woman? Eager to die? What are you doin' sneakin' up on us?"

"I have an offer, a deal to make with you." Lady Tremaine said. She was frightened, could feel her heart beating wildly and afraid of cutting her throat when she talked. She moved her hand and took a heavy pouch of gold coins from her cloak pocket. The bandit grabbed the pouch. He threw it on the ground where it spilled open, spilling the gold coins on the dirt and grass. Anton grabbed the coins.

"We have your money, we might take your life if we want to as well." He said.

"Then you would not get the greater treasure I am offering you, I can give you much more gold than that, and power." Tremaine said as Hank loosened his grip on her and lowered his dagger.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Anton demanded.

"I am a friend of the Devil. We both serve Satan."

At that Anton laughed. "I suppose I do. Go on."

"I want revenge on a certain maid named Cinderella. The prince plans to marry her. She was my housemaid, but then she went to the ball last night in disguise and attracted the eye of Prince Charles and he fell in love with her. Now he plans to marry the little wench and I have no more servants to clean my house!" Lady Tremaine declared.

"Why should we care? If that's the least of your problems than perhaps we should beat you within an inch of your life and leave for dead as punishment for your arrogant pride so then you can finally have some real problems for a change." Scoffed Anton.

"Please hear my plan before you dismiss me. I plan to have Cinderella and the prince kidnapped when they go on their honeymoon. We can hold them for ransom and I imagine the king would be desperate to get his son and daughter-in-law back. I know magic, and I am part of a coven of other Satan worshippers who will agree with my plans. The demon generals of Satan told me this plan; it was they who gave me this idea." Lady Tremaine pleaded.

"It sounds foolish to kidnap the prince and his bride and risk having a royal army coming after us. But we go after travelers in the forest all the time. If Prince Charles comes through this forest with your maid, we will capture him and his bride and hold them both for as much money as we can get. We will make the king do our bidding once we have his son as our hostage. How do I know this is not a trick to betray and capture us? What if you are working for the king trying to capture us and this is a trap? " Anton questioned.

"It is not. I will introduce you to the other members of the coven. You may even meet the demon leaders." Said Lady Tremaine.

"Fine. I will take your word for now. Go tell your dark magic friends about the kidnapping plans. Tell them to meet us here three days from now." Anton informed her.

While Lady Tremaine was meeting the bandits in the forest, Anastasia and Drizella had to clean the kitchen at the Tremaine estate, formerly the Good estate. Hortense Tremaine kept the name of her first husband when she married Cinderella's father Jonathan Good. She had no intention of changing her surname to Good, and made that clear to Jonathan, who didn't mind.

Anastasia washed a plate and put it in the dish drainer. Drizella bumped into her with her big hips when she went to dry the plate. Anastasia pushed her back with her equally big hips. The girls began to push and fight. Drizella picked up the plate to dry it. While in the process of drying the plate it slipped from her fingers and crashed to the floor.

"Now look what you've done! You broke another one!" Anastasia scolded her.

"It's not my fault!" Drizella yelled back. "Besides, you broke the last one."

"I did not!" Anastasia shouted.

"Did too!" Drizella yelled.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

The redheaded Anastasia pulled her brunette's sister's hair. Drizella pulled Anastasia's red hair. Then she slapped her. Anastasia pinched Drizella and kicked her. Drizella punched Anastasia. Anastasia punched Drizella. They fell together on the floor of broken dishes in a fit of hair pulling, slapping, punching, kicking, pinching and scratching. Their fancy dresses became ripped, torn and dirty in the fight. Finally exhausted and wounded they stopped.

"Owe, owe." They said. "Ouch, ouch."

"Where's mother's book on healing?" Drizella asked. "Where else would it be but in the library, stupid?" Anastasia said.

"Hey don't call me stupid. This is all your fault you started it."

"Whatever, talk to the hand." Anastasia said. She got up and left the kitchen. She went in the library with Drizella following her. They began to fight over the book of healing spells. Anastasia pulled at one end of the book while Drizella pulled at the other end. Finally Anastasia let go of her end. Drizella fell back on her butt with her skirts lifted up and her legs in the air. She had the book in her hands. A page had torn loose from the book. Anastasia picked it up before Drizella could see it. It was a map of some kind, maybe a treasure map that had been hidden inside the medical book on herbal and first aid healing. Anastasia quickly hid the map under her dress in her petticoat pocket before Drizella could see it.

When Drizella recovered Anastasia said, "You can have the book; I'll look at the other books on healing." Anastasia and Drizella tended to their wounds with the healing skills learned from the books and their mother. Of course, they wouldn't need healing if they hadn't gotten in the fight in the first place.

Lady Tremaine returned home. She swore when she saw the mess in the chaotic house. The hard-working, neat and tidy Cinderella would never let things get out of hand like this.

"ANASTASIA! DRIZELLA!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "Come here and clean up this house! I have returned home to find a disastrous mess." Anastasia and Drizella went to the front hall where their mother had called them.

"Look at you two! You area mess! You have been fighting like cats and dogs! Why haven't you cleaned the house while I was gone?"

"We tried to clean the house mother, but it was too much." Drizella said.

"We did our best." Anastasia said.

"You two need to shape up. Perhaps I should send you down to the basement to be educated by our devil friends" Lady Tremaine suggested.

"No!" Anastasia and Drizella both said at once.

"Really girls, I understand, you are not servants and should not have to do manual labor. I need a servant to clean the house. I had a free servant that did all the work, but now she is gone. I need to get my servant back. We need a servant, or several servants, to do the work around this house. Our Lord and Master has made a plan to provide for us servants, or the money to hire servants, so that we may live in comfort once more. The best part about it is that it comes with revenge on Cinderella."


End file.
